Matt Oyos received a B.A. from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and went on to earn a master's degree in history at the University of Nebraska in 1986. He received his doctorate in history from Ohio State University in 1993, and went on to a three-year post-doctoral fellowship at the Triangle Institute for Security Studies, which was then headquartered at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1996, he joined the faculty at Radford University, where he has offered courses on American history, modern Latin America, the history of warfare, the Vietnam War, and World War II. His research is focused on twentieth century military affairs, and he has published a number of articles and book chapters in this area. Matt's present project, Rough Rider in Chief: Theodore Roosevelt and the American Military, explores how the twenty-sixth president worked to create a modern military force for a new century of warfare.

Matt Oyos was trained as a military historian, but, as another military historian--much more eminent than himself--once said, what military historians really study at root, is not militaries, but war. War is a scourge, but it has long been an influence on human affairs. A complete understanding of the past and present is not possible without examining war as a motive force in human history. In his courses and research, Matt emphasizes, therefore, how wars shape societies and societies shape war.